Bees 'Starving' for Pollen as Native Flowers Fail to Bloom

By Andrew Chounding

By Samantha Goerling

Landline Topic: Beekeeping

Fri 30 Aug

In the sandy hills of the Yanchep National Park, Anton Esterhuysen is on the hunt for flowers. The native bushland on Western Australia's central coast would normally be bursting with springtime blooms but after four years of increasingly dry winters, only a handful of plants are starting to bud.

"WA has had less rain and a very hot summer, and that's probably the after-effect we are seeing now," Mr Esterhuysen said. "A lot of dead plants and blooms, the buds are not there."